一、选题背景与意义

Research background and significance

 Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American novelist, short story writer, and journalist. His economical style had a strong influence on 20th _century fiction. Hemingway won the Nobel Prize in Literature for his “mastery of the art of modern narration” in 1954. Many of his works are considered classics of American literature.

 When we talk about Hemingway, the term of “Iceberg Theory” will come into our mind immediately. Hemingway's biographer Carlos Baker said that as a writer of short stories Hemingway learned “how to get the most from the least, how to prune language and avoid waste motion, how to multiply intensities, and how to tell nothing but the truth in a way that allowed for telling more than the truth.” Furthermore, Baker explains that in the writing style of the iceberg theory the hard facts float above water, while the supporting structure, complete with symbolism, operates out of sight. Hemingway’s iceberg theory highlights the symbolic implications of art.

 Because of the writing style of Hemingway, it is important for us to know the implications of the imagery when we read the works of Hemingway.

In this study, imagery refers to the language that produces pictures in the minds of people reading or listening. In detail, imagery, in a literary text, is an author's use of vivid and descriptive language to represent objects, actions and ideas to add depth to his or her work. According to Gerard A. Hauser, we use imagery in speech and writing "not only to beautify but also to create relationships that give new meaning" (Introduction to Rhetorical Theory, 2002).  

Therefore, imagery often makes the writing more interesting, more engaging and more meaningful through the use of sensory details. It can add a layer of deeper symbolic meaning to the text. If we know more about the imagery, we will find the beauty and the profound meaning of the work. In this way, we will come closer to the author. In a word, every reader should notice the importance of the literary imagery, set up the idea of the imagery and try his best to find out the implication of it in the literary work.

Nowadays, many researches place great emphasis on the imagery of the literary works. And there has been a growing interest among the educators and researchers both abroad and at home to analyze the imagery. And I am going to study the imagery of light and shadow in Hemingway’s works. Through my research, I hope I can make clear what is the implication of light and shadow in Hemingway’s works and effectively help Chinese English learners get deeper understanding of Hemingway’s literary writings.

二、研究的基本内容与主要特点、创新点

 This paper focuses on the study of implication of light and shadow in Hemingway’s works. There are many works written by Ernest Hemingway and light and shadow are mentioned repeatedly. It can not be denied that the light and shadow are important in Hemingway’s writings. However, the use of light and shadow in Hemingway’s works has been little dealt with. The purpose of this study is to identify the light and shadow imagery, to find out their implications and to evaluate their importance in Hemingway’s major fictions. The works to be discussed include Indian Camp, A Clean Well-lighted Place, The Light of the World, Hills Like White Elephants, The Snows of Kilimanjaro, The Old Man and the Sea and The Sun Also Rises. Each work will be discussed inpidually.

 The creativities of this study can be concluded as following.

 First, it is creative to study the implication of light and shadow in Hemingway’s works. As we all know, in both Chinese literature and English and American literature, some images are often used and thoroughly studied such as rain, fog, snow and so on. And many researches about the imagery of Hemingway’s works focus on the major imagery such as the sea in The Old Man and the Sea, the white elephants in the Hills Like White Elephants and so on. Comparatively speaking, there are not so many researches about light and shadow. And the researches about the implication of light and shadow in Hemingway’s works are less. Therefore, I choose this topic. It would be a challenge. However, at the same time, it is a very meaning job.